Job Search Red Flag - Incentivisation
When you’re assessing a particular firm to join, there’s an important factor to consider and that’s how they’ve set up their incentives. This is an area that’s often overlooked, but might well be a red flag. This is a key area I cover with my clients once they’ve secured a job offer. It’s an area worth considering carefully and asking thoughtful questions about during the interview process.
Here are some key things to consider:
Alignment of your goals and incentives. It’s obvious that you need to be crystal clear about the deliverables that they want you to achieve, the timeline, and the resources that they’ll provide for you to do that. The second step, which isn’t always taken, is to inform you of how you’ll be incentivised to achieve those goals.
Alignment with other stakeholders. Any well run firm will want to reduce friction and part of that is to ensure that everyone’s goals are aligned: people, teams and departments. Part of that alignment is that there are few to zero conflicts which are produced and encouraged by the misalignment of incentives. This is key.
Timing. You can imagine that if you have a firm that has its appraisal system, the setting of fresh objectives, bonus payments and promotions all out of sync, it will be difficult for employees to believe that their achievements are actually related to their rewards. This leads to the next point.
Transparency. Transparent communication regarding incentive structures and criteria helps in building trust among employees. When employees understand how their performance is being evaluated and how incentives are determined, they are more likely to feel motivated and engaged.
Balanced. The firm should strive to balance their incentive programme so that both the achievements of the individual employees and the success of the firm are rewarded and reflected.
Values driven. A well-run organisation will be very clear about its values and ensure that they have systems to ensure that employees behave in a manner consistent with those aspirations. That behaviour should be rewarded and encouraged.
Not just Financial. Many studies have shown that financial reward is not always the best way to reward and incentivise employees. Other ways might include:
Growth and development courses and programmes
Promotion
Perks, such as more annual leave and flexible working
Being given more autonomy and empowerment
Creating a career plan (that is actually acted on and supported)
Public recognition for achievements and successes
Private recognition during appraisals or outside an official process
Being invited to participate in activities to develop areas that have been recognised as skill sets that need to be worked on
8. What the individual wants. A good management team will have taken the time to understand each individual’s motivation strategy and NOT assume that the incentive being offered is the incentive that will motivate. I saw an ad for a competition offering a wood fired pizza oven for the garden. Some people might get excited about that: I’d rather text Deliveroo. You get my point. An incentive is only a good one if it motivates the desired person.
Closing thoughts
Incentivisation is an important factor to investigate during your job search - both when you’re looking for roles and after you’ve been offered one. A well run organisation will have few conflicts and little friction. The workforce - your future colleagues - will be happy and highly motivated by a well constructed and thoughtfully put together series of incentives that can be tweaked to meet individual interests and priorities. If these are lacking - dig deeper. It may be a red flag or reflective of broader issues with the firm.
If you’re currently in the midst of a job search or are deliberating over a job offer, get in touch for a no-strings-attached Coaching Call.